2013 Sub-3:30

Ted - I hope your tweak goes away soon, and Happy Anniversary! If you want a beautiful though rather hilly course, and as I mentioned above it is not certified, Rim Rock in Grand Junction in November is lovely. Of course Pike's Peak is the classic mountain course. I'm not thrilled about the new course of the Durango Marathon - the old one was nicer - but if you want to run it, you have a place to stay (or hotel/B&B recommendations, and I can possibly get you a discount).

Rday - arthritis, huh. I hope you get it figured out. I have some arthritis in my left foot due to a motorcycle accident in my early 20s but usually the pain decreases through the run.

Rocky - with the paces you've been hammering I can't imagine you're not going to kill your PRs. Or possibly yourself. I am planning a trail race in September but only a 10K! Also, if you ever decide to do the Hardrock (and get in through the lottery, of course), I will come crew for you since it's in my neighborhood.

This morning I ran trails again, up the agonizingly steep 'Babyhead Hill' to Raider Ridge which is one of the places I took Texas Trotter when he was here last summer. It was a beautiful morning!

I'd planned on 8 miles but (and Tex, don't yell at me) I took a fall just a quarter mile from home on the way back. My access to the trail system is on a ludicrously rocky ditch that has become a use-trail, and somehow I tripped and went boom. Squished my handheld, scraped my right palm and my left shin, and I will have a really impressive bruise on my left hip. I walked the short distance home since I was a little shaken (and felt more than a little nauseated) but after cleaning up I'm fine now.

I have just hit the button and registered for my fall half marathon and a motel to stay in, woohoo!

Neat you talking your doctor into running -- wherever I go, I do that. You reminded me about how excited my new car salesman, sales manager and another employee were talking about running yesterday (loved surprising my wife with a vehicle - it's our 25th wedding anniversary this week - and am paying for their registrations in the 5K race I'm sponsoring and bought them books about running. I pay for my employees, doctors I work with, and occasionally clients, to run. It's my goal to get as many people as possible running. And eating healthily. It would be such a better world if more people did that.

Well, congratulations on your wedding anniversary .Also , kudos on giving your employees the means to improve their health and fitness . Although I have worked as a professional trainer in the past , I enjoy the pursuit more as an avocation . I have done what I could for employees , friends, and people in need to help promote a healthier lifestyle . I'm actually contemplating starting a new business centered around helping people to enjoy a more nutritional diet .

I did order those Altras . But I'm going to listen to the specialist and not train in them until after the marathon .It is amazing that both my primary doctor and my specialist are both transitioning into those same shoes .

Hi everyone. My turn to say that while I've been reading the updates, I haven't had much time to reply. I work at a college and this is our busiest time of the year so I've been hit or miss around here lately.

Only one question (I think) that is out there for me that I haven't answered. Texastrotter - I did run on the nature trail around campus, many times. I also used to walk it on lunch breaks sometimes. It's probably still exactly the same as when you were there. The whole campus probably is the same except that they just opened a new dorm, the first new construction in many years. It's all very green and environmentally friendly. That place was green before green was cool.

As for me, I'm sad to say that I had a bad fall while doing 6x1000 repeats at 10K pace on Tuesday. I messed up both knees pretty badly and have taken today off and mostly likely will have to take tomorrow off. For someone who rarely takes days off, this really bums me out but I need to do the right thing. Oddly enough, I still managed to finish the workout (4:30, 4:20, fall, 4:29, 4:28, 4:27 all with ~2:30 jogging recovery except the fall rep in which the recovery was crawling onto someone's yard to get myself off the road and laying on my back staring at the stars trying to assess the damage). It must have been adrenaline and endorphins because as soon as I finished, I was in so much pain that I could no longer run, limped/walked home, then laid on the floor wimpering for a half hour trying to figure out how to get up and in the shower and get to work. I think there's something to our body and mind's natural ability to overcome pain that I wish I could control better.

Stopping in to say hi again. I've been back over a week now from my very excellent vacation, though sadly it was w/o DW this time. Awesome time with the boys and we're making up for lost time with their mom. Ran quite a bit for the first 10 days, and then circumstances conspired to cut them down a lot. Took me a while to get back on track, though I'm not likely to hit 60 miles again this summer/year. Still, I should get back to 50 this week, probably next week, and then...it's taper time. Sept 14th is the day. I'm running a very, very local race, I'm guessing sub-200 people. It's very flat, and mostly under trees, so limited overheating risks. The weird thing is it's 8 loops of 5km, so that'll be a first.

I'm feeling much, much more confident than my May FM (which I DNFd), partly because I cut 2 minutes off my HM time in June, hitting 1:30_something. But while I feel much better prepared, the DNF really made me think hard about strategies (as if I need an excuse to obsess). I got a 3:21 a year ago and in May, I was "only" trying to do a 3:19. There have been times this summer when I thought I should dial in an even fast pace. But my thinking is I'll probably go conservative and not risk pushing it until the last couple miles.

kk - you first. Congratulations! You do indeed clean up nicely and you do the radiant thing very well. Those smiles even looked like just plain happiness, and not sheer relief, the way some pix are. I'm glad to see you managed to balance honeymoon activities with the running.

Jim - Wow. A 70 mile week. And you're even healthy. That sounds very, very positive. I don't see you on the race list though. What is it you're "ready" for?

calbear - I'm glad you got that 5k sorted out. Not surprised by the (amazing) time, but it's still impressive.

cafery - I'm a bit behind. Are you hurt? (See you were at the PT...)

lon - You sound as if you're doing well. Curious to hear how that 15k run went. Hope the muscle strain is a fluke

rday - sorry about these health issues of yours

tex - I didn't realize you were such a running missionary! Hope your knee/heel hang in there.

CWS - what fun running with the family! Glad the vacation was good

Ilana - Mighty impressive stuff, 60 miles, and a rainy long run

crz - that sucks about the fracture.

frenchb - that's an impressive 5 week streak there. I definitely prefer the weather over on this side of the pond. It's the jet lag that's a bit confusing.

Ted - I'm not sure which is the coolest: multiple 60m weeks, 32 years of marriage, or celebrating it in a place called French Lick. WTG on all three fronts!

Oxygen - hi. sorry about that fall. Yeah, taking days off happens to us mortals. BTW, I personally don't think overcoming pain is always the smartest plan. Toughness vs fatigue is one thing. But pain as a result of an injury happens for a reason.

kk - Again congrats on the wedding and glad the procedure went well. Hope you are back to running soon.

ilana - Great week, but too bad about the fall. Hope you aren't too stiff and are back to running soon. Sounds like the right choice on the half.

Rocky - Running Comrades should be an experience of a lifetime. Looking forward to hearing all about it. You have your usual busy racing schedule ahead. This will be my first time at VA Beach, but a lot of people have said positive things about it.

fb - Nice consistent running over a long period of time. Those miles should pay off for you in the marathon.

lon - Sorry to hear about the muscle strain. Hope it is nothing serious. Good luck Monday. I had hoped to shoot for a sub 1:45, but my running this week hasn't been very good, so now I'm just hoping to go sub 1:50.

jim - Your running has been very strong recently and you are putting in some impressive miles. Keep it up and stay healthy. No PRs for me. I may have run my last PR as age continues to get to me. My wife maybe wil PR.

Hoosier - Great running for you as well. A lot of strong mileage weeks for a bunch of our regulars here. Congrats on the anniversary. I think we discussed it last year, but I have you beat by a year. My wife and I celebrated 33 years during our vacation.

rday - The toe does not sound good. Hope you can manage to get through it and manage some recovery.

oxygen - Hope you recover quickly from your fall. I think you said you are no longer at Haverford, but I had a summer student who went to Haverford and graduated last year. A great kid who is now looking to get into medical school. He loved it there.

runbo - I can't imagine doing an 8 loop marathon, although I do my long runs on a 3.5 mile loop.

Not really tapering for the half as I have about 30 miles in so far this week including a 10 miler this morning. I also managed a 20+ mile bike and a swim. Hope to swim again this afternoon and then do a brick workout tomorrow before leaving for VA Beach. We are staying Fri.-Mon. with the race on Sunday. I read this morning that the Boston field will be expanded by about 9000 runners, so that may increase my changes of getting in. Registration starts early. Have a great weekend everyone.

Jen - Ouch on the fall! Amazing how you don't really feel it 'til the run's over.

Bohem - Well, look what the cat drug in! Just kidding - thanks for coming back and sharing. I doubt you'll lose much fitness from the vacation down weeks. Sounds like you've had a solid cycle - good luck on your race!

cws - Good luck on your race too! Looking forward to your report.

TXT - Are you picking up your packet this weekend, or on race day? I'll text you this weekend to try and meet up at the race. Not sure what shape I'll be in.

me - No running since Tues a.m. due to the muscle strain. It's improving, but slowly; maybe 70% healed - it's the unknown of how fast the remaining 30% will heal. I'll try to run a 3m tomorrow, starting out slowly and shutting down if/when necessary. I'll be really mad if I can't do the race on Monday. As it is right now I think I'll be able to race, but no where near 100%. Have a great weekend - and happy Labor Day to those of us in the States!

Well hello all!! I've been super busy at the new job AND have no run at ALL since I last posted, but today I did do 1.5 miles of mostly walking w/a VERY slow jog just to make sure everything would be ok, and so far so good.. tomorrow's plan: 2 whopping miles, maybe at around an 11:00 min pace.. I'm just going slow to make sure my body responds ok. I plan to use next week to ease back into running until the following week where I plan to go back on Pfitz12/55, maybe forgoing the speedwork in the beginning. Still haven't weighed but this can't be good... I definitely feel like I want to start running again! I've managed to bike some, elliptical, yoga, but.. I'm ready...

I'll have more to say next time - Hi to everyone, many thanks for your continuing well-wishes. To all the US'ers, have a great long weekend!

Hey guys, just a quickie as we are packing madly for our long-weekend backpacking trip. Plan is to take the train to the wilderness trailhead and then hike up to a high basin and camp, climb a 13,8xx peak the next day, and then hike out to catch the train Monday.

I do indeed have a big bruise on my hip from my fall, but the weird thing is, as I was preparing dinner, my left big toe started hurting, and then it hurt more, and then it hurt so much I couldn't even walk! I was hobbling around the house feeling all miserable! I think what happened was that I stubbed my toe in the fall and it bruised - i.e., filled with blood - and the swelling and pressure had finally hit some threshold. Anyway, I took some ibuprofen and put the world's tiniest icepack on it while we watched an episode of The Borgias, and the next morning it felt fine. But I was really worried that I'd doomed my running, not to mention my backpack trip.

Anyway, no problem running the next day - 12.4 miles at 8:45 pace, felt easy though I noticed a lot of HR drift. Today was 6 miles on trails again, for a total mileage of 43 for the week and 243 for the month - not a record but among the top 5 or so.

Good vibes to the hurting, good luck to cws, have a nice weekend whether ordinary or 3-day, and 'see' you guys on Tuesday.

It has been almost 3 weeks since I have managed to get back here and post. I see there are some new people here since I was more active on the site. It is always good to hear about everyone's running exploits.

I read about the wedding an had to search back to find the pictures. Very nice, and congratulations.

The fire jumping picture was great too.

I just got back from a wedding myself. My son got married last Saturday in Houston. Running there was a challenge, it wa so hot and humid compared to Seattle. It does not take long to lose heat tolerance.

Ilana,

Good to hear you are planning on running CIM in Sacramento. It wood be fun to meet you if it works out.

My training for CIM has begun in earnest and is going well so far. We had a great dry summer here up until last week. I have been doing some treadmill work this week as a result. This weekend is supposed to be nice, so it will be good to get back outside.

I am a lttle unsure about picking the right pace for my speed work and tempo runs. My last speed workout was 6x0.5 miles at 6:59 pace with 0.25 mile recoveries at 10:00 pace. Yesturday was a 6 mile tempo run at 7:40 pace. I included a 1 mile warmup and 1 mile cool down (8:34 pace) for in the speed workout but nothing for the tempo run.

I am not sure I can maintain that pace when my plan calls for 1 mile speed repeats. Earlier, when I was doing 0.25 intervals, I was going a little faster (6:30-6:40), but by the 12th one I was struggling a little and slowed some.

My injury recovery is continuing well. I can hop on my right foot without my heel touching up to 10 times without stopping now.

I went to a running shoe store a few weeks ago and they analyzed my gait. They had difficulty because my left foot still over-pronates but my right one doesn't (because of the titanium rod). They suggested that I get two different shoes, a neutral for the right foot and a stability one for the left.

Been a bit tardy and haven't posted in almost a week. Sounds like some good running going on.

lon, sorry about your injury, hope it's ot too serious

Ilana: do you ever slow down?

rday: hey, hope your toes get better....

Hi to all,

Just finished week 12 of pfitz (moved the sat-sun runs to fri-sat. 93.7 km (58.2 mi) for the week. Yesterday, ran 22.2 k (14 mi) with what should have been an 8-15 km race, but no races planned for me, so just decided to do the middle 10k fast. Started out not sure if I would hit marathon pace (legs were a bit tired, and it was an early morning run and all). Ended doing the fast 10 k at 4:35/km pace (7:23/mi), so a 45:50 10k time in my 22 km run. Have to admit, I was pretty happy about that, I guess because it was unexpected.

Today a 28.2 km (17.5 mi) lond run, picking up the pace in the second half for a pretty big negative split, and the last 5 km (3 mi) or so at nearly MP, 5:03/km, 8:08/mi.

Wow ! Solid week of training with two difficult runs . You are crushing it !

Schidzoidman

Good to see you back .

Lon

I trust you can handle the muscle strain .You have this !

Runbohem

You need an excuse to obsess ? That one had me cracking up. Just my own two cents ...WE DONT NEED ANY EXCUSE ! It's in the DNA .

I won't try to give advice on issues others have here . Your all pros compared to me . I will just say I read everything and am rooting for all of you to nail your goals .

As for me , pretty negative stuff . I admit to being a bit down . As I write this my toe is burning and in pain . I trained fairly hard in the only way I'm capable at this time .I'm sure I look rather foolish jumping off an elliptical machine in the gym and on the treadmill and then out the door on the road for a couple of miles or so . Another day I started running until I felt burning in the toe . Then I ran back to my house and jumped on a mountain bike for the first time in over a decade . Another comical image to imagine is me in an insanely high gear pedaling madly to go up a hill at slower than I could have walked it . That was my pathetic attempt at speed work . That done I ran a few miles until the pain made a normal gait impossible . After two days of rest tomorrow will be the last day of my week . I will attempt 3 hours non stop of some combination to simulate a long run . If I can accomplish this oddly enough I will have finished the week with the same amount of time as a high 50 mile week of running .No, I know it's not the same as actually running . But it is the best I can do for now .

I went to a running shoe store a few weeks ago and they analyzed my gait. They had difficulty because my left foot still over-pronates but my right one doesn't (because of the titanium rod). They suggested that I get two different shoes, a neutral for the right foot and a stability one for the left.

You can buy one shoe designed to do both . You may have to transition though . It is the altra provision . It has inserts for both . You can use one insert or two that they provide . Another option is to take out one or both and insert an orthodic . It might work for you . I plan on trying it after my marathon .

Hey everyone! Sorry to have been absent for so long - no problems just busy busy!

fb: I thought my take on this weekend runs was hard (see below) but you really dialed it up with your take on the "race"/long run combo!

kk: Not sure I've done a shout since your wedding photos - they were lovely, glad to hear you're doing well - good luck with getting going withthe training again.

rday: Sorry to hear your toe news. Sounds like you're doing a good job of keeping your fitness up - more power to you!

As for me, I've had a good couple of weeks. Our 4 days at the Cape was great - I got loads of sleep (going to bed when it got dark and the kids were tired) and did all my planned training. The week ended with a 20 miler after I was home and totaled 57 for me (it's the peak 55 mile week in the 18/55 schedule). This week has been hard but good. Like fb I'm also a day ahead of schedule. I decided to do a 10K time-trial for the "8K to 15K race". There is a measured route along the flat river-side trail where my marathon ends. It was an early-morning effort before work on Friday and it went well - 43:01 which is 1:34 faster than my race PR (my 10K PR was a bit soft because it was set a few weeks after my marathon last year). This morning I did just over 18. My legs felt understandably heavy after yesterday's effort, but in the end I was able to keep my normal Pfitz long-run pacing (MP+20% for first half MP+10% for second). The week came in at 52 - but feeling quite a lot harder than last week despite the cut-back in miles (maybe in part due to being back at work for the whole week!)

In other news, my job-hunt is increasing in intensity - adding to my time-load, but - thanks in part to the running - not too much stress!

I'm stoked: my knee is behaving (thanks to lots of Advils, massaging, and ice), the heel and ankle are ok, and I was able to run 20 this morning. OK, not fast (9:13), and the last two miles were in the mid 10's and felt like death marching, but given the temp of 83 and dew point (60), not too shabby. I was determined to beat last month's PR of 180 miles (which was much easier with half of that in beautiful and cool N. Cal), and this got me to 181, mostly slow, when I've usually averaged about 130 with more fast miles. And for the first time ever, I ran the day before the LR (7 with a couple of hills). So this week, only because I did LRs on Sunday and Saturday, I ran 62, another PR.

Lon - Where do you want to meet? How about in front of Lukes (on Carroll side, away from crowds, at 7:20? Hope your strain healed up. How did your 3 miles go? Maybe you can get a deep tissue massage before our race? For everyone else, it's the 15K Texas state championship. I won't be racing it. It draws a faster field, is a big race, and I was lucky to have taken 2nd out of 19 last year. That won't happen with all my slow miles, but hey, we run marathons and most of our competitors at these shorter races don't, right?

Sorry to read about the latest injuries. I told my wife last night how crazy we are to be willing to slam our legs into the pavement, knowing that 70% of us will get hurt every year, furiously rehab, then start running the minute we can.

Rday -- Thanks. Your dedication in the face of injury is amazing. I've hinted that I think you should rest but you are too tough to do that. Love all your XT. Good luck with your three hours tomorrow. You were a professional trainer too? I'd love to hear more about your new business idea, as I'm fairly obsessed with healthy diets. How will it work? You ought to read Rich Roll's book or follow him online.

Jen - Hey, hope you are recovering. I thought of you lying on your back, hurt, looking at the stars, then getting up and running more sprints as I started out in the dark at 5 this morning. Wow. Yeah, Haverford was beautiful, one of the reasons I chose it. I also lived a semester at Bryn Mawr, which was also attractive but in a formal, Gothic way. So which college do you work at now?

Jim -- Sounds like your running is going great. 66 and 70 miles, wtg. Wow, that's hot for you guys. What do you do to cope on LRs?

Ted -- Hope your right leg has healed up since the other day. I'm icing mine as I write this. Congrats on the 32 years of marriage. OK, so I have to ask, how did you meet skydiving, were you on the same plane? Tied to each other as you fell? Pretty good metaphor for marriage. I'll skip any French Lick jokes. There are a lot of marathons in CO, but I picked the CO marathon in Fort Collins and I think it's in early June when there aren't many others that time. It's small, gorgeous, and fast as you run the first half down a mountain and next to a gushing stream. And it's obviously cold -- I think it was 26 at the start. Fort Collins was a very cool place to hang out, then we drove through the beautiful mountains and stayed in Boulder so you can make a great vacation out of it. Let me know and I'll PM or text you some tips on where to stay, etc. It's gotten very popular.

FB - Was it cool being back in the USA? I've also found the Pfitz program to be hard to follow exactly - nice job with your modifications. Nice job with the negative split on the 28 km and strong finish.

SMan - Don't be a stranger. Wow, running with a titanium rod in your foot, that's got to hurt. Your story is so inspirational. Hope the different shoes help.

Ilana - Hope you're feeling better. That's a lot of miles. Saw your FB comment and just for the record, yeah, that was straight up rocks -- we were both walking if I remember -- but I loved running there, even at the altitude I obviously wasn't accustomed to (I live at 500 feet) on on trails when I mostly run on flat roads. I ran about 100 miles in Durango and Telluride, even higher. Where I said I could have gone over the edge, we were coming down a trail at a sharp switchback that I hadn't seen. Enjoy the backpacking.

KK -- You'll pick up where you left off quickly. Congrats on the new job, where is it? We just saw "Book of Mormon" and I thought of you with all the SLC references. So how's married life?

cws - Hope you get into Boston. I'm happy to give you my times as I won't be using them. Glad the tri training is going so well for you. Has your son recovered?

Caf -- Thanks. Hyde Park looked like a great place to run when we were there in January (after Israel). No, I mostly don't do leg exercises any more out of a fear it'll reaggravate my knee, but there are lots of good ones.Those squats are the basics and there are some good variations. Spinning or cycling will build them up quickly. I'd love to live in Europe and be able to fly to so many great places on the weekend. Here, everything is pretty far away. Is it still baking in Madrid? I hear you about weight and sleep. Can't believe the people that say they can't lose it or get it -- if they ran, they would do both.

Runbo - I didn't realize you had a marathon in a few weeks. 5K loops, interesting. Easy for the family to cheer you on. And I'd forgotten about your 1:30 half, impressive. You've also gone out and gotten fast on us.

Rocky - You're the only guy who can casually mention he's just signed up for a 50K up in the mountains next weekend, and only as a training run for a super hard 50 miler two weeks from then. And oh, you've got a marathon in between? How do you do it? You're pretty incredible. Again, your Comrades/Africa trip sounds amazing. Hope your 20 today went well and the 15 tomorrow, sounds hard. I bought Wave Riders after years away from them -- how do the Sayonaras differ?

40 - Just saw we were posting at the same time so wanted to add this. Sounds like a great trip. WTG with that fast 10K and the 18 this morning. Good luck with the job hunt.

TXT - Sounds like a plan! See you there at 7:20. Not sure of what I'll be capable of, but we'll see on Monday. 3m run was slow and leg felt tight and twingey. Any attempt to pick up the pace was met with a sharp rebuke from the leg! I know it didn't set me back to run and I'm hoping it actually did me some good.

Oxy - Hope you´re healing up quickly too. I hear you about how adrenalin can numb the pain. Only really had road rash once, when I clipped a kerb about HM pace and scraped my elbow and the palm of my hand quite badly. Thankfully was a gas station about 300m away and stopped off to get some paper towels.

Runbo - Good to hear from you! Your marathon is certainly different! Your training and your HM suggests a sub 3.15 is on the cards. I´m back on the road to recovery. I picked up an over use injury at the end of May that kept me sidelined until the start of Aug. So no fall marathons/HM for me this year. Oh well it´ll give me more time to built a rock solid base for next spring!

FB - Another solid Pfitz week. That 10K time is a real confidence booster, as I´m sure the last 5km of your LR at MP pace.

Rday - Sorry to hear about the toe. Hope you managed to get in a 3 hour cross training session.

Runbegan - Like FB, your training is going great. Smoking 10K time! That´s a heck of a confidence booster, then the next day to knock out an 18m. Wow! Your fitness must be really going up several notches - I know the fitter I am, the faster I recover.

Ted - Great work in getting people into running. Good to hear your knee and calf are ok. Living in Europe does have one disadvantage, we have a fraction of races compared to the States plus there´s no just running community like over there and no free training runs like many towns and cities have. Temps are cooling off, especially at night, though highs still close to 80.

Rocky - It´s amazing how you race as often as you do. That 10m sounded tough all right. That must be about your HM pace? I´m sure you can´t wait for S. Africa, even though it´s about 9 months away, I´m sure it´ll be a race of a life time.

Me - Things still going well. I´m slowly getting building up my runs. Did 5m on Wed, same on Friday and 6m today (the magic 10K). I´m icing a lot and that´s helping, there´s still swelling, but as always no pain. I´ve found some good runners knee exercises on you tube and I my knee cap is tracking much better and my quad feels much stronger. I wonder if this is the real reason for the swelling (PT and the tramatologist I s saw just said it was an overuse injury)

Hi to anyone I missed.

Hope you´re enjoying your long weekend! And best of luck to TT and Lonr

15K went better than expected, goal was 1:15, finished in 1:11:33, 3rd in AG (funny because I ran it 2 + minutes slower last year and got 2nd) on a drizzly, super humid 90% morning, dew point 73. Highlight was running a few miles with Lon and meeting up after.

Caf - So glad you're recovering. Every other day is the way to go, especially with so many months before your next big one. With all the pressure to run more, especially on RWOL, noone ever talks about the dark side of that. Like inevitable injury.

FB - Ha, too bad you just couldn't have stuck around here, lots of places to stay all over the US with all of your friends here.

Texas - You are gifted. Must be all the veggies. Nice job running in the broiler. Maybe the competitiveness with Lon kicked in.

caferey - Did miss something about "magic 10k"? The fact that you keep building miles and there is no setback is a great sign.

Lon - How did your 15k go? Did the leg hold up?

runbegan - Isn't it great when all that running takes care of the life stress. Really solid week for you. I'm more amazed that you could do a time trial on your own and beat a PR. I just can't get up like that for a time trial. I need the race environment for the extra mojo.

rday - I admire your stubborness to not quit. Despite the fact theat you can't run without pain, you are doing everything else to maintain your fitness. What does concern me is the end game. Is the plan to hope it settles down enough for you to get through the race?

schizoidman - Inspirational to say the least as far as you have come. Glad you checked in to give us an update. The CIM training sounds like it's right on track and it is still way early. Keep it up and don't be a stranger.

Ilana - I hope you had a great "peak" weekend. Hooray for your fall half, obscenities for your fall. Great mileage from you this month on top of all the other training/activities/fun you do. Everytime someone mentions the Borgia's it takes me back to catholic elementary school. I attended St. Francis Borgia...apparently the only good Borgia.

KK- I don't think it will take you long to get back to your normal running self. Bypassing the speedwork at the front end is a smart move.

cws - I don't remember your BQ time, but if you're under you're in. I hope VA beach went well.

Runbo - Weird to hear about taper time already. Where did the summer go? Really, 8 friggin' loops? More power to you buddy. I like your conservative plan. As for what I'm ready for, I just enjoy running 70m for fun...and the Milwaukee marathon. I've kicked it up a notch.

oxyjen- I was so psyched about my August monthly miles until I saw yours. I'm such a slacker. Are you fully recovered from that nasty fall? I've fallen like you have and you are so right abouth the adrenaline/endorphines. It doesn't feel to bad at first, but then all of a sudden you are in a world of hurt.

Rocky - You never do anything halfway do you? Big Cottonwood out, so let's just replace them with ridiculously long and altitude crazed races. I think Marathon Maniac in the dictionary should have your picture next to it.

Ted - Congrats on your anniversary. You mean there was no thought of parachuting into French Lick to celebrate? Your running sounds solid. I can only assume all the hill work is for NYC since I have no idea what Evansville's topography looks like. I was there once a long time ago but don't remember terrain. On the Ghost 6 vs 5, the toebox is not smaller. The main difference is the removal of the arch shank. The shoe feels so much softer and more fluid when you run.

Hey to everyone I missed. The epic Pfitz 17 w/14 at MP went well. It was 77F with 88% humidity (missed the dewpoint that day) and I averaged 7:55 for 12m until my pace fell off a couple of seconds and wound up at 7:57 overall. Happy it went well combined with the miles. I got to 67.5m this week which gets me to a monthly PR of 282.5. I missed the second half of my double day since I slept wrong on my son's bed to avoid my wife for a few nights. Twisted my back and it hurt to breath deeply for a day but I'm better now. My DW has been sick all week with bronchitis/double ear infection/high fever. It was a mutual decision.

I will run a 10K tune-up race this coming Saturday by the lake. Not sure about a PR in the midst of training but I should see a great time regardless.

Lots of big kudos to TXT on his great race today - especially considering the conditions!

I knew the hamstring was not right at the start, but hoped to keep up with TXT for as long as I could. Unfortunately, not too long after mile 2 it cramped up severely. I had to decide whether to quit or fight through it and decided to fight on. Slowly worked my way back to running 7:42 miles, but any faster would cause unmanageable pain. Finished in 1:12:53, good enough for 5th in AG. I probably didn't do my hamstring any favors today; looks like it may take 2 weeks or more to heal. Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to run slow miles while it's rehabbing. So much for getting a fitness check today - blah.

Jen- So sorry to hear about your fall. Pretty incredible that you finished- it's amazing how that adrenaline can mask the pain like that isn't it? I hope you're feeling better and back to your usual miles. And thanks for the tip on Philly- that's really good to know. For now I am going to shoot for the half, but if I feel I'm not ready for that I will send an e-mail and see what they can do. I qualified for NYC for next year, which is easier for me logistically, so was planning on doing that, if I'm even still doing this marathoning thing. I'm beginning to think I'm not cut out for it.

lon*rnr- That stinks that you hurt yourself going into the race, but 5th in AG isn't too shabby, especially on a bad leg, so congrats! Take it easy now and let it heal. At least you have some time before your marathon.

Ilana- Sorry to hear about your fall as well, but sounds like you recovered pretty quickly. Beautiful picture though. I hope backpacking was fun.

Tvine- I hope that 18 miler went well.

Zene- That family run sounds fun and new running shoes are always good, but especially when they're free.

KK- Glad you're able to start back to running, even if it is just a little bit for now. I'm sure you won't lose much fitness, especially with the other stuff you've done. I hope the new job and married life are treating you well and that you're feeling all healed up.

Jim- Sounds like your training continues to go well. I'm glad your back is better andI hope your wife is feeling better as well. Good luck with the 10k!

Texas- Congrats! Great time and 3rd in AG is awesome, especially because you ran it so much faster than last year and in tough conditions. Glad your knee/heel held up. Congrats on your 25th anniversary. Mine was this week too- but just 21 years for me.

Caferey- Icing and quad work sound like a good idea. Glad you're slowly building those miles back up.

CWS- Sounds like you had a nice vacation. I hope the RnR went well.

Rocky- A sub 60 mile week? You're slacking!!! That trip sounds amazing, as does the Comrades marathon. You sure have a lot on your plate...all good though. I'm jealous of your biomechanics : )

fb- You're really getting some good training in- nice on the negative split in your long run.

Ted- Congrats on your anniversary- that is a lot of years! I hope that leg issue didn't turn out to be anything serious.

rday- So sorry to hear about that toe. I give you a lot of credit for trying to do whatever you can to achieve your goal. I am rooting for you. And you made me laugh calling the tm "that torture device"- it sums up how I feel about it perfectly.

runbo- Congrats on that awesome hm time. Glad this training cycle has gone so well for you.

Schiz- Congratulations to you and your son. You're hitting some really good paces in your training. Pretty amazing.

Forty- Glad your pfitz training is going well. If I ever use one of his plans, the 18/55 is the one I would try- I don't think I cold handle anything more. That's good news on the job search front too.

Not much news for me. I can try to start running at the end of the week. That will be 8 full weeks off (other than that Warrior Dash) and my plan is to start back very slowly and make sure I am really healed this time. From what I read it can takes 3 months for a sfx to fully heal, so I need to be careful my first month back to make sure it does that. Most likely the only race I will do this fall is the Philly half, which is 11/17. But if I feel like I'm not ready I won't do it. My plan is to try to do Boston again and my main goal will be to get through a training cycle with no major injury. I am starting to hear grumblings from my doctors, as well as my DH, and part of me thinks maybe they are right and I am not meant to run marathons. So I need to get through the next one in one piece so I can keep doing this : )

kk - Good luck working your way back to running. I think with your history you should be fine.

ilana - Hope the backpacking trip went well and there were no ill effects from your fall.

schizoid - You certainly have some interesting problems to deal with. I would hope that some shoe store would be helpful given what you have been through.

fb - Solid training.

rday - I know you are down, but you are doing some phenomenal efforts to keep yourself in shape. Hope it all works out.

runbegan - Solid training for you as well. Good luck with the job hunt.

texas - Great job on the 15K and congrats on the AG. My son went back to the Dr. last Friday and seems to be progressing as expected. He starts PT this week.

caf - Good luck ramping back up. Hopefully the knee will behave this time.

jim - Great job on the 17 miler with 14 mp. I hope you are just staying away from your wife to stay healthy. My BQ time is 3:55 and I'm a little over 4.5 min below that time.

crzn - When I came back from the AT injury, I started out run/walking, with more walking than running initially. Did that over about 2-3 weeks before starting continuous running. Seemed to work pretty well.

OK, I'm not as fast as you guys anymore and only managed a 1:50:20 at the half. My splits were pretty consistent with the fastest being 8:18 and the slowest being 8:32. My second half was faster than the first half, but I just couldn't pick up the pace enough in the last mile to get under 1:50. The race was very well organized with lots of bands, lots of well-manned water stops and plenty of other entertainment. Crowd support was good in downtown VA beach, but once out of the downtown area it was pretty sparse. One downer was that about a mile in, I saw an older man on the ground with a number of people around him. I learned later that he died. He seemed to be in good shape and it was very early in the race. Haven't heard exactly what happened, just assuming it was a heart thing. I don't think I mentioned it before, but while we were gone on vacation a member of our running club was hit and killed while out on a training bike ride. It all makes you pause to think about what we are doing. Not trying to discourage anyone as I still plan to go out there and keep at it. Hi to anyone I missed. Stay safe everyone and have a great week.

cws - consistent splits are good, so I guess you were going about for that time?

crznszn - I think your chances of getting through the marathon healthy will be enhanced by allowing your sfx to heal fully.

lon - boo on your hamstring. Amazing you still got 5th AG even hobbling! I hope you have not done too much damage by the race.

Jim - hoorah for the epic 17/14MP going well! Though I think your MP should be faster than that :whistle: I hope your poor wife feels better soon - that combo of infection sounds awful.

Tex - congrats on the 15K! Super time, and you never can tell about AG placement - it's all about who shows up. The humidity sounds dreadful. Oh, and congrats on your new monthly mileage PR (and weekly too!)!

Caferey - sounds like you have it all under control. I hope you have no more setbacks.

40 - that's an awesome 10K time for a time-trial - faster than my downhill PR and I need the competition to run fast! I think 3:25-3:29 is looking good.

rday - Maybe you need to back off a bit and not do anything that aggravates your toe?

fb - Slow down? Heck, I'm always moving slowly. I just don't stop. Nice tempo in the middle of your run there. And it's always nice to end a LR fast (better than the opposite).

Schiz - it would be great to meet you at CIM! I don't see how you can run a tempo without a warm-up - I always need a few slow miles to get in the groove. Try using one of the pace calculators like McMillan to get your interval paces. I admit I mostly do those by feel.

Well, we had a most excellent Labor Day weekend backpacking trip, and when I get a little time I'll get the photos off the camera and write something up for my blog. The hiking was extremely strenuous - very steep and difficult trails (if you could call them that - they were unmaintained and poorly marked routes, and we got lost a few times) at high altitude - but we had two lovely nights in a high mountain basin and climbed Turret Peak, the 89th highest mountain in Colorado, with weather nice enough to sit on top for nearly an hour.

My legs were pretty sore all weekend so I was a little nervous about today's run, but it was incredible - 9 miles with 4HMP, which I started out again aiming around 7:30 pace but it felt so easy and my HR was so low that I picked up the pace a little: 7:28, 7:24, 7:21, 7:22. Similar to the same workout last year around this time, but much lower HR. I'm very pleased!

My 19 miler was a tough one! It was super humid and hot and I hit some pretty hard winds coming back in on the last 6 miles. My body felt like I was going much slower than I really was, but I managed to push through it. Definitely did not feel strong at the end and my breathing sucked!

I did the first 2 @ 8:40 and then 4 @ 8:30, 4 @ 8:20, 4 @MP and 4 @8 and 1 @ 8:30

The last 4 were difficult because of the wind and I didn't realize the route I picked had a good 3 mile gradual incline right at the end! Which I guess is good for training but all the variables didn't make it very fun! Hopefully the humidity goes down this Friday, if not I am hitting the beach!

Other than my LR I had a good speed work out yesterday at the track. It was my first time doing my speed work on the track and I am super glad I did. I usually set the treadmill up for my speed work, but the track allowed me to push myself harder and I was hitting splits I had never seen before!

Did an easy 5 today and swam laps for an hour and I am looking forward to my day of rest on Thursday..

As for my weight.. WTH! I have put on 5 pounds in the last month and I am running like crazy and I eat really healthy.. Is anyone else experiencing weight gain and if so... how do you diet and run?

Another (mostly) post and run from me. Ugh. Sorry all, the start of semester is busy for me and my daughter started school this week, too, so I just have so little time lately.

Texas - You've asked me twice so I'll finally answer - I'm at MCCC now. Since I'm in IT, where I am makes little difference but it is interesting how different the schools are that I've worked for. I've learned a lot from all of them.

Tvin - I've tried tracking calories when training hard and specifically. It's difficult. If left to do what I want, I'll gain weight while marathon training, too. It's a balance.

Me - I'm still semi injured from that fall last week and I'm not all that happy about it. Most of my body has recovered but my left knee is troublesome. I've had 4 days off out of the last seven and ran 37 miles on the other three (this doubles the amount of days off I've had in the past year, ugh). I'm not quite sure where I'm at with this. I'm sorta pissed off and sorta handling it maturely. My half marathon is in 12 days and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do any more specific training toward it. But my focus is on finally getting to the start at Philly so I need to take whatever time it needs now. As much as I hate it.

It looks like we have a few injuries in the group. Take the time to get well.

I am just trying to do something everyday and make progress. I'm just running by time and I would guess between 30 and 35 miles last week. Weight is down 4 lbs. to 166.

My street is about exactly 600 meters around with fire hydrants spaced conveniently at about 200 meters in either direction. So, one day last week I did 200, 400, 600, 400, 200 and felt OK although I started predictably too fast.

Hi again, folks. Life has been busy, not the least of which being all the running I've been doing!

I've gotten in 70 miles each of the past two weeks and would like to maintain that level until my taper in five weeks. I was able to purchase a bib from someone for the Marine Corps Marathon here in DC (yes, I added it to the spreadsheet) for only $50, and even when adding in the $30 transfer fee, it's still only $80 which is twenty bucks less than the standard charge!

Yesterday marked the beginning of club track workouts of the Washington Running Club on the track of American University. We have permission to use the track from 6-7:30 every Tuesday through the fall. It's a really nice track, with a fountain and restroom as well! For my first workout I did four 800m's at paces that ranged between 3:29 and 3:35. My hope is to increase that by one in each of the next six weeks until I can do 10 at that speed, which would be a 'Yasso 880s' set indicating I should be able to run a marathon under 3:35. I'm feeling fairly confident that I can achieve that - I had a lot left in the tank after the workout.

I'm still waiting for a replacement console for my treadmill, but it is marginally useable. If I'm quick about it, I can set a speed and turn on the treadmill's fan before it freezes up. I've been running most of my miles on it, but I did my long run this week outdoors. After running 19 and 21 the previous weekends, I had hoped to do 23 miles - a 3 mile warmup followed by a 20 mile loop on the Rock Creek, Georgetown Bridge, and Capital Crescent Trails - but wound up taking a wrong turn in Rock Creek Park. As I would have had to run 26 miles to complete the loop, I took the Metro back from Bethesda, MD instead and called it a day after 18 miles.

I'm still doing my modified Pfitzinger routine... modified in many ways. First of all I was originally planning to run on 10/6 so it's now 21/70 instead of 18/70. Secondly, I haven't been running much fast stuff, mostly focusing on getting in the mileage. That includes not doing much of the speed workouts as well as not doing much MP in my long runs. What I have been doing is the back-to-back middle length runs and the weekly long runs... I've done perhaps eight runs over 18 miles with four more to come.

Even though I'm not running fast, I am running strong. I've been able to do all sorts of stuff after my long runs without feeling sore, which is a huge shift from my past prep cycles. I more or less feel like I could run my marathon tomorrow if I needed to, but get confidence from knowing I still have lots of training plus a taper to get me to my goal time.

The area I've struggled with the most is my weight. I haven't lost any more weight since dropping to 152, despite all the miles... I've just been eating to match! I have improved my body fat percentage, though... I'm leaner and more muscular, and since I know that muscle weighs more than fat, I'm not hitting myself over the head about not dropping any pounds. However, I was hoping for some speed boost to come from dropping more poundage, so that's not going to happen to any great degree. That's made me scale back my time goal to 3:35 for the MCM, and I'll just have to wait for some future point in time to crack 3:30 again.

Texas: Congratulations on your race result! And your age group place! Must be tough conditions with that kind of humidity.... way to go.

lon: Congrats for sticking through it, hope it didn't mess up your hamstrings too much. Good luck getting them healed. Are you and texas in the same AG?

ilana: Nice run especially after all the hiking. I find that my legs get more tired from the hiking and long walks I do with DW than from running. Great training.

Jim: Nice to nail such a long MP run. I have one coming up this weekend. May or may not do it (see below). BTW, my daughter had the same problem last week when she was in the US as your wife, especially ear infections. She had to stay an extra week in the US because she couldn't fly. She didn't mind though!

Tvine, I've lost 5 kgs during this cycle by consciously focusing on losing weight, because I find that if I don't, especially during marathon training, I tend to eat a lot and will even pick up weight when I'm not careful.

oxyjen: well, it's too bad about your injury, but you are still in great shape. Focus on getting healed before stressing too much

Hi to everyone else

Me: well, I went out for a GA run Monday, nice and easy, at around 5:30/km pace (8:50/mi) and about 6.5 km into it, felt a sharp pain on my right calf. Walked about 500m to try to work it out, but it stayed. Jogged back to work (I was out at lunch) and it remained very painful. Limped around the rest of the day. Just happened from one step to another. Very strange. Never had that before. I took yesterday off, and it feels better today, although I can still feel it slightly. I will try a very easy jog this evening to test it out. Want to be conservative here, because it's too close to race time to risk aggravating it if its not right....

On a positive note, signed up for a half marathon in two weeks (4 week from Goal marathon). I was originally going to do a hilly one with a friend three weeks from the marathon, but this one is closer to home, and more or less flat, like Chicago. So I'll get a better idea on my pace, assuming no more problems with my calf!

Tvine - I like progression runs, but usually I try to vary the paces by a greater amount. I.e. I would have started at 9 to 9:15 pace and then worked down to 8:40, then 8:20, then 8:00 (is that what your planned MP is?). Or even dropped paces by 30 sec each time - 10 seconds is normal variance for me within a run.

Jen - on your left knee! Falling can really tweak your body up. It sounds like you have your priorities straight, though, and taking some time off to let it heal might really let you zoom your half - I actually set my half PR while injured, and I suspect it's partly because I was resting a lot in the couple of weeks before it. (And then I ran it hard, and had to take off a lot of time before Boston, and ended up having to scale back my goal and had a tough race anyway, and then had to take months off for rehab. But don't let me scare you...)

Tim - Doing something every day is a great goal. Good work on the weight loss.

jeroly - it sounds like you are back on track! I am not a fan of Yasso 800s - I don't think they are a very good gauge of goal time, and I don't think repeated 800s are the best speedwork for a marathon. If you're going to do any fast miles I'd recommend working toward mile repeats and then tempos, with occasional strides or other short efforts to practice turnover and form. I do think that focusing on the distance aspect of Pfitz is a good idea, if you have to ditch the speed. Those back-to-back medium runs are awesome for building endurance.

40 - a little bird (okay, your blog) has told me that yesterday was an important day! Happy 19th anniversary!

On weight - a lot of people gain weight on marathon training because it makes them hungry and they eat a lot more! There is a lot of 'oh, I just ran 10 miles, therefore I can have a milkshake' justification going on, and it's easy to overeat. But assuming you are controlling the calories okay, it seems to me that some people gain muscle and some lose fat on marathon training. I was talking with some women running friends and speculating that it has to do with body type, I don't know - I'm relatively slender but muscular and put on weight in my belly, and when I run a lot my weight drops to a lower set-point than when I am not running as much.

I'm pretty happy with my weight at the moment - when I came back from England mid-June it was in the 118-122 'not running much' range, but it dipped below 118 about three weeks ago and has been hovering around 116 lately. My belly is nearly gone (as are, alas, my breasts) and I expect my weight will continue to drop until I'm in the 113-115 zone which seems to be my racing weight.

I have also noticed a recent significant drop in my resting HR, which has always been on the high side for an athlete (my doctor commented on it, but said it was not a problem) but which went from around 60bpm earlier this summer to around 56bpm a couple of weeks ago, and was 52 when I measured it yesterday and also this morning. I don't know if it's a temporary effect or not, but I certainly seem to have had a jump in fitness this week. Yesterday's tempo, as I mentioned, was really good, and today I ran 9.5 miles on the trails at a much faster average pace than usual, at lower average HR. I also did 8 10-sec hill sprints.

Ok to make things worse.... Yesterday on my run I got a sharp pain on my side/hip/but area. So i slowed down and stretched it out and kept running. It went away but as soon as i stopped running and went into my house i was limping. Today is my day off so i have been icing it and taking motrin and stretching it out. My race is a month away and it hurts to walk :-(

Jim - Great work with the MP run, especially on those conditions, that´s a great confidence boost. Hope DW is better now. Nothing magical about 10K, it´s just that I run in km´s so it was nice to hit "double figures" same goes for marathon training and I hit 100K for a week.

Lonr - Sorry to hear about your hammy. Well done on AG award! Hope you heal up quick and it´s nothing too serious.

CRZ - Sorry to hear about the sfx. Fingers crossed for Boston.

CWS - Good work in hitting consistent splits, I´m sure you´ll get sub 1.50 in your next HM or even faster. A shame about the death at the race, and sorry to hear about the accident in your running club.

Ilana - Sounds like you had a fantastic weekend. Re heart rate, your fitness must be up a notch or two then compared to last year.

Tvine - Good work with the 19m. Re weight, has there been a slight change in your diet? Eating out more for example? Or snacking a bit more than usual? In marathon training I can´t remember ever gaining weight. Hope the pain has gone and the icing and stretching did the trick.

Oxy - Hope the knee is improving. I hear you about not being able to run, I think we all know how frustrating it is when we´re injured and we can´t get our daily "fix" lol! I won´t worry about losing too much fitness, what with the miles you log, you don´t lose all that in a week or so.

Tim - Keep up the good work!

Jeroly - You´re certainly logging the miles! Fingers crossed with TM. I won´t worry about your weight, the fact you´ve lost fat is a great sign.

FB - Hope the calf was just a one off and icing and stretching has helped. Your HM I think will be perfect to give you a time idea for Chicago. Great work with 5Kg! That´s a fair a chunk of weight, you must really notice it.

Me - Did 6m Tues and just heading out to do 12k (7.5m approx) Still icing my knee and doing the stretches.

TT - I REALLY want to see Book of Mormon, but honestly it doesn't come around here much! My new job is at a small firm which seems nice for now - still time for running

Cafe - hope the knee keeps getting better.

Ilana - great tempo there.. hiking last weekend sounds like fun. My resting HR is usually a little high for an athlete too, the only time its been low is when I was severely malnourished. While you brought up the breasts going away, I assume mine'll go at some point but so far have yet to lose from that area.. while I'm a 00 on bottom, I'm a 2 on top. That makes shopping fun sometimes.

Jen - sorry about the knee.. handling things like that with maturity is hard for me too! Hope it gets better soon.

FB - I used to have problems with my calves all the time. I think it's bc I'm a forefoot striker, but I seem to have adapted.

TVine and on weight in general - I've gained weight during marathon training too. I assume it's eating more bc I'm hungry and bc I might gain a little muscle in my legs, but then again, I've always put on weight in my legs so it could just been good old standard weight gain from eating more.. Also, in the summer, my weight ALWAYS fluctuates a lot more, and 5 lbs even on my 5' frame isn't unheard of, so I'd watch to see if it stays there.. could just be water or such.

On that note, we've had so much good times and celebrating lately that I don't know that I've stopped "vacation eating" yet. Also, apparently the lawyers go out to lunch EVERY DAY at work so I don't want to exclude myself but I am NOT an eat lunch out every day type of person.. I think I'll just pack a lunch and bring it mostly..

On the running, things are going ok. I started out REALLY slow and shockingly the first day I ran 2 miles and staying at a 9:50 pace was HARD. I was really nervous about it but it got easier, and I kept run/walking until Tues and yesterday, were I managed 5m at a 9:00 pace, and I was deliberately trying to slow down just to make sure the comeback is as injury adverse as possible. I think this weekend I'll try for 7 on sat and 10 on sunday, then go back on the plan, and as I mentioned before, skip speedwork the first week back.. not that I'd be ABLE to do it anyway.. no running for 10 days was shockingly hard to come back from.. I think I'll be ok though..

ilana - Sounds like a great trip. Looking forward to the pictures. Glad the run went well too. Considering the effort of the hiking and the previous fall, that must have been good for the psyche. As for my half, I wasn't really shooting for that time, but just was hoping to put in a consistent effort at what felt like a comfortably hard pace.

Tvine - Don't read too much into the hard LR. With the heat and humidity, that was probably expected. The uphills will pay off in the long run. Sorry to hear about the hip pain. Hopefully nothing serious.

oxyjen - Sorry to hear you still have knee pain. Good work getting in the miles you did.

Tim - Good work getting the weight down.

jeroly - 70 mile weeks are impressive. I've never hit that mileage for a week. Don't worry too much about the lack of weight loss.

fb - Sorry to hear about the calf. Hopefully it was nothing serious.

caf - Hope the knee continues to behave. Work into the running slowly.

kk - Glad you are back to running. I'm guessing you will progress rapidly.

About 25 miles so far this week, with a 21 miler planned for tomorrow. Fun time last night as we went to a 5K run to benefit a charity that Chris Lieto is involved with and he was there. For those of you who don't know him, Chris is a triathlete who's finished 2nd in the Ironman Hawaii. We were able to talk to him for about 5 min before the race. A really nice guy. As for the race, I wasn't planning on running it hard as I had run 11 in the morning, but my ego got the better of me and I ran the second half hard enough to pass 3 people and end up 3rd overall. Just 21 in the race, so not that big a deal, although the winner was a 21 year old who ran about 18 min and I finished 10 sec behind the second place finisher in 23:15. Hi to anyone I missed and have a great weekend everyone.

I'm happy to report that my knee started to feel a little better today. After taking Tuesday off, I ran an easy 5 miles on Wednesday and Thursday and it was worrisome enough to schedule an appointment to get it checked out next week before the half marathon. Today I ran the same flat easy five miles and it felt better. I was also testing out my new lunaracers so that if I can run the half next weekend I'll have at least tried them. I absolutely adore that shoe. I wonder if there's any chance that it had anything to do with my knee feeling a little better. At any rate, I'm encouraged and may try something a little longer tomorrow.

me - No running since Monday due to the hamstring. Only today have I even been able to walk without pain. Foam rolling seems to have helped the most. I'll attempt a slow & short run tomorrow, which is exactly where I was last Saturday. If I can build up slow volume next week, I'll be very happy. Time is on my side right now.

lon* - smart to shut it down until you can at least walk without pain! You are right, you've got plenty of time to heal up and continue training. I backed off in late October before Houston when my peroneal tendinitis recurred - no problem building back up again to solid training.

jen - yay for knee feeling better! I need to get new shoes as well. Right now I'm mostly rotating among pairs of Kinvaras, and I feel I need something a little heavier-duty for all these miles.

cws - comfortably hard is good! A surprise 3rd OA is awesome, too. I have come in second OA as well in tiny local races - three minutes behind the pro triathlete...

KK - I don't know about sizes reliably, but usually I get 'small' bottoms (e.g. running skirts) and 'medium' sportsbras. But it's not so much the breast as the rib cage and shoulder span for me. I would go nuts eating lunch out every day! I'm glad you're able to run again!

Caferey - do you feel like your knee's getting better? Is 12K your max so far this time?

Jeroly - I missed the bit where you were doing a half marathon! Race it hard and I'll tell you if you can make 3:35. I think projection from a half (and average mpw, and race relationship) is much more accurate than Yassos.

Yesterday I ran 13.1 miles (not a half marathon, it just turned out that way!) on a fairly hilly route, averaging a little under 9 minute pace for the first 9 miles, 8:30 for the last 4. Felt good. Today, however, I attempted a Hudson 123212321 ladder (1 min hard, 1 easy, 2 min hard, etc.) and it did not go quite so well - I was targeting 6:50 pace for the hard efforts but the route was hilly enough that my times were all over the map. Also, I think yesterday's faster finish might have tired me a bit much, and finally, after the second 3-minute interval I had to take an emergency bathroom break. So 8 miles total, averaging about 9 minute pace including the recovery jogs, some fast efforts, some hard efforts that were not nearly as fast as they felt!

Jeroly: that's a lots of miles your running. That should be a big advantage in the marathon!

Jim: Good luck on your 10K today. Post here as soon as you have some results...

Me: Well..... Wednesday went out for a short, slow run, felt really good, and kept on going. Was in the Netherlands doing a route I know well, and ended up doing the full loop of 16 km (10 mi), with not too much pain in the calf, until..... km 15.3, where I felt the sharp pain again. I've been off it since, and while I don't think the issue is serious, I think it could easily get aggravated if I push it now. So today is the third straight day sans running, which is driving me ape.

I can still feel it a bit when I flex my foot, so I'm going to force some downtime to make sure it heals up. I just don't know how long that will take, we'll see...... keep you posted.

fb: I hope that calf gets better soon. It's my most common niggle - I find that sometimes a ziplock of ice in my sock while sitting at my desk helps, other times it's stretching. I tried the foam roller once too. Whatever works I guess, but not pushing it is smart.

caf: I hope things continue to improve for you too - the strength training can only help I'm sure. I did those exercises for a while after having issues with runner's knee. No time for anything but running and stretching at the moment!

crz: Ha! That's the sort of thing I would say/think! - you need to get through the training in one piece so that you're in one piece - but I hear you about spouse/doctor concerns!

cws: sounds like a solid HM - yikes about the incident near the beginning! Nice result in the 5K too - 3rd is 3rd is what I say especially after my victory in a small race this year!

ilana: I enjoyed your backpacking report. Sounds like your training is going just about perfectly too. Thanks for the anniversary wishes!

tvine: I quite often see my weight stall or go up a little then drop for no apparent reason during a cut-back week or something. I hope the hip pain is just a temporary thing. I know I get skittish close the race and worry a lot about niggles - I hope that's all it is for you too!?

jen: Sorry to hear about your bad fall, glad there is some light at the end of the tunnel now. I hope your recovery continues quickly!

tim: Nice work!

jeroly: Sounds like a solid plan. I hope it all goes well.

kk: Glad to hear so much is going well with you - I'm sure your fitness will rebound now that you're working at it again.

As for me, I've had a great week.

M 8.5T 9 with 6 1K intervals at average of 6:34W -T 12 with a couple of little pushes to keep my interest up (averaged 8:36)F 6S 18.5 with 14 at average of 7:41.

This morning's run was particularly satisfying - really felt strong doing the long MP section (was aiming for 7:45). I really feel that my fitness is well up on last year. Last year I was doing a few MP (8:00) miles (4 or 5) at the end of my long runs but my HR was up in the high 160s. Today I did 14 miles at MP (7:4x) and my HR was at least 10 bpm less.

Job hunt continues. I have a phone interview on Monday but for a job that would mean a move. We'll see!

Hey thanks. I'm really not that fast, so that was a pleasant surprise to PR and get 3rd, and be 10 seconds behind 2nd.

I wanted to compliment Lon for how well he handled his leg issue mid-race and still finish so strongly.

I ran 17 this morning on a very warm day (80 and 67 dew point at start at 5 a.m.) in 2:30, including some hills, so was happy with that too.

Other runs this week were 5 on the TM on Thursday with some hills and sprints and 9 on Wednesday.

Jim -- Congrats on your #1 AG in your 10K. And congrats on the 70 miles. You are too kind. I do think the veggies have a lot to do with it. Remind me when your Milwaukee marathon is.

Lon -- It was so much fun getting to see you again. Hope your hams have quieted down a little. Foam rolling is a lot like massage so glad that's helping.

rday -- So how's the toe doing? Feel so bad for what you're going through. Your determination is impressive.

40 -- All your hard work is paying off. 14 in the 7:40's, wow. Good luck on the job front.

FB - Sorry to hear about that calf. Don't go crazy not running. Can you XT?

Ilana - Sounds like you're on a roll up there. When you say fairly hilly we know you're not kidding. Nice job with that 13.

Jen - Glad the knee is on the mend. I got stung by a wasp on my run the other morning and turned around to go home for some first aid, then remembered you getting back up after your fall, so I just kept running. Thanks for the inspiration (that's one of the main reasons I'm on this forum -- to be inspired and motivated.)

cws - Hope you get into Boston. The mania begins Monday. I got to meet Chris back in my brief tri stage, and yes, he's great (today was the 4th anniversary of my last tri, that half IM -- the heat was insufferable).

szn - Wow, 21 years -- congrats to you for that. Good luck with your recovery. That's got to be unbearable for someone as fast and committed as you. So glad you're going back to Boston.

KK - Hope you were able to do your 7. Please take it easy, ok? Your new job sounds great. I wouldn't worry too much about your weight. I lost 5 pounds from my run this morning. No, I can't see Book of Mormon coming to your city.

Caf - Delighted that your better. I've got ice on my knees now so I can relate. Too bad Madrid didn't get the Olympics.

TV - No, not you too. Must be something in the bandwidth? Hope you're feeling a little better today.

Jeroly - 70 a week X 2, wow Yay for you getting into MCM. It's still one of my all time favorites. Glad you didn't run the full 26 in the park. You guys have such great running up there. Jealous. I still have MD to do -- which race would you suggest?

Remove From Your Block List

Manage Follow Preferences

Block

When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.